Codecademy Stats & Top Courses

It’s officially time to ship 2024 — congrats! At the end of any big project or undertaking, it’s wise to look back on what went well and think ahead about what you want to try next. If your team uses the Agile approach to development, you know this as a “retrospective.”  

As the year wraps up, we want to pause and take stock of the goals you’ve reached, the lessons you’ve learned, and the progress you’ve made. This is Code Review, our annual exploration of data from our learners and courses that uncovers key trends and challenges shaping the tech world today.  

We couldn’t have done this without you — our learners, our community, our biggest champions. Every new feature, update, and milestone we hit this year was inspired by your curiosity, ambition, and feedback. Together, we’ve pushed Codecademy far beyond our beginnings as a starting point for coding. In 2024, it’s a place where careers are built, tech skills are sharpened, and barriers to growth are smashed. 

This year, we took big strides to reflect the diverse journeys of learners at every stage of their careers. Whether you’re just dipping your toes into tech, pivoting to a new role, or leveling up for a promotion, we’ve got you covered. From certification prep skill paths in new fields like cloud computing and IT, to tools that bring our learning environment to life — like AI-powered coaching and mock interview simulations — we’ve worked hard to meet you wherever you are and help you get to where you want to go.

We learned (a lot) 

In 2024, learners collectively spent 507,530,006 minutes learning with Codecademy. That’s enough time to sit through Dune Part One and Part Two over 1 million times. Or, it’s about as long as it’d take to watch all 149 of the Eras Tour concerts that Taylor Swift performed in 2024 over 17,000 times. This colossal amount of time invested in learning new skills underscores how committed and enthusiastic our community of learners is when it comes to achieving personal goals and advancing careers.  

Everyone has different amounts of time to commit to learning technical skills, because we all have unique goals, schedules, and responsibilities. Casual learners may take a couple of years, career changers can achieve their goals in under a year with focused effort, and upskillers might work learning into their daily routine. It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to complete a Codecademy course or path. Everything is self-paced, so you have the freedom to stop and start when you need a break and revisit concepts whenever you want. 

We’ve also made it easier for entire teams to build technical expertise through our interactive courses. With Codecademy Teams, you can unlock Codecademy Pro access for your team of 2 or more members plus use advanced analytics and reporting tools to track individual progress and group growth. You can jump right in and start a 14-day free trial of Codecademy Teams now. 

If coding was an Olympic sport, we’d have enough Codecademy learners to represent all of the countries that participated in the 2024 Summer Olympics and then some. This year, our global community expanded to 237 countries and territories, with our most learners residing in the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. We’re constantly blown away by how learning can bridge gaps and bring people from different corners of the world (even Antarctica!) closer together. 

We created new ways to track growth… 

This summer we organized our own global competition, the World Coding Games. Over the course of 7 days, we challenged our learners to see how many skill XP they could earn by completing content items in our courses and paths. Every content item in a course or path grants a unique amount of skill XP, determined by its type, the time and effort needed to finish it, and its connection with Bloom’s Taxonomy, the educational framework that shapes our curriculum. For example, completing a lesson or project earns you 25 XP, while tackling a portfolio project rewards you with 50 XP. The inaugural World Coding Games drew thousands of participants who collectively earned over 1.15 million XP — and built some serious skills. In the end, the first-place winner of the World Coding Games racked up 9,510 XP.   

Codecademy learners collectively earned a staggering 676,443,705 skill XP in 2024 — and we have you to thank! Wondering how many XP you’ve earned to date? In your dashboard, you’ll see a log of the XP you’ve earned in various skill areas, and you can sort them based on the amount of progress earned or the most recent skills you’ve worked on.  

… and use AI so you make progress faster   

If 2022 was the year AI burst on the scene, 2024 was the year that AI entered our lives in a meaningful way. We believe that AI can enhance the learning experience, not replace it, which is why we added an AI Learning Assistant to provide AI-powered personalized support and guidance right in our learning environment.  

The AI Learning Assistant harnesses OpenAI’s latest model to give you instant, personalized coding guidance. Inside courses, projects, and articles, you can pick a piece of your code, click “Explain code,” and get a clear explanation powered by GPT. You can then keep the conversation going by asking follow-ups, getting extra details, or using the AI Learning Assistant to catch any bugs. 

Since the launch of our AI Learning Assistant, we’ve seen an impressive 976,331 conversations from over 270,000 learners and a total of 3,177,777 learner questions and messages exchanged. Good to know: Learners with Pro and Plus subscription plans have access to unlimited prompts, while folks with a free account can try twice per day. 

Another significant AI feature that we rolled out in 2024 was the Interview Simulator, a tool that creates interview questions like those you’d encounter from recruiters or hiring managers for Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack Developer roles. You can customize it to suit your target company, skill level, and where you are in the interview process. The Interview Simulator can currently run a mock get-to-know-you phone screener, and soon we’ll add technical or final-stage interview. 

It’s awesome to see how many of you are using the Interview Simulator to prepare for job interviews — to date, we’ve had over 20,000 interviews practiced with this tool. We hope the practice helped and you nailed the job! You can try the Interview Simulator now; you get 3 free uses with a Basic account, while Pro members get unlimited access to the tool.   

We expanded our course catalog 

Our catalog grew by over 220 new courses this year. The new offerings cover in-demand languages and topics, like Learn Next.js, Learn Prompt Engineering, and Intro to Angular. With our cutting-edge learning environment, these new courses make it easier than ever for you to dive into emerging tech topics at your own pace, regardless of your previous experience level. 

Our introductory (and recently updated!) Python course Learn Python 3 continues to reign supreme as the most popular course started on Codecademy, and it’s easy to see why. Python is a perpetual fan favorite, especially for folks learning to code, because it has a concise, English-like syntax. Versatility is another big draw — Python can be used across domains, from web development to data analysis and, of course, machine learning and AI. Python’s importance in AI makes it essential for anyone looking to enter or advance in the tech industry or understand new AI tools.  

We introduced new domains 

One of the latest changes to our catalog is our expansion into cybersecurity and cloud topics. We now have double the course offerings in these areas, including free introductory courses and over 20 comprehensive skill paths that prepare you to take in-demand certification exams.  

Industry certifications validate your knowledge of specific skills and can increase job opportunities, salaries, and chances for bonuses and promotions. Our test prep courses prepare you for some of the most sought-after certifications, including CompTIA A+ 220-1101 (Core 1), AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02, and Cisco Certified Network Associate 200-301.  

We’re also doubling down on professional development with our new professional skills domain. We know that soft skills are a crucial dimension to technical training, and these expert-led video-based professional skills courses help you fill in your skills gaps in areas like communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking. The free course Effective Stakeholder Communications for Technology Professionals has quickly become a favorite.  

We hosted events and launched clubs 

Connecting with other learners is one of the best ways to find motivation. Our Codecademy community members are 50% more likely to meet their learning goals. If you’re not part of our vibrant community yet, be sure to join our community platform for access to exclusive events, clubs, and opportunities.  

We hosted over 200 impactful events this year that foster collaboration and skill-building across our community. From coding hangouts to monthly challenges, these virtual events are open to everyone in our community and are great opportunities for knowledge sharing and networking. Want to see what’s coming up? Check out the events page. 

On our community platform, you’ll notice that we’ve launched over 16 clubs (with more to come), each covering a diverse range of topics. There are career-focused clubs, like the Future Founders and Freelancers Club and Machine and Deep Learning Club, as well as location-based clubs in cities around the world. Whether you’re looking to dive deep into a specific subject or simply chat with like-minded tech enthusiasts, our clubs provide the perfect environment to explore and grow.  

We had fun while we’re at it 

Have you seen Codecademy come across your TikTok For You Page? We joined TikTok this year and have loved sharing videos with practical project ideas, career roadmap tips, and tech history lessons with you. Our most popular video on TikTok was this roundup of summer-themed coding project ideas. (BTW, keep an eye out for a new way to brainstorm coding project ideas coming soon to our learning environment.)